Gustavo Munúa

Gustavo Adolfo Munúa Vera, Munúa (born January 27, 1978 in Montevideo), is an Uruguay football (soccer) who plays as a goalkeeper, currently for Deportivo de La Coruña in the Spain La Liga.

Football career

Munúa started his career in Club Nacional de Football, where he won the Primera División Uruguaya titles of 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002. In Nacional, Munúa established the record of longest time without conceding a goal: 963 minutes. He also has the record of being the first goalkeeper to score a goal in Uruguayan football, when he made a fantastic free-kick to give Nacional the victory in a league match against Central Español. He also scored some goals from penalty kick, in the league and Copa Libertadores.

Munúa left Nacional in 2003, joining La Liga Deportivo de La Coruña, where he struggled to gain first-choice goalkeeper status: from 2003-2006, he was topped by Spain national football team José Francisco Molina. From 2006 on, he faced stiff competition from Israel's Dudu Aouate.

In January 2008, after regaining first-choice from Aouate, both goalkeepers were involved in a post-training punching session that resulted in both being suspended for the match against Villarreal CF, as well as subsequent league games.In February, due to B-team keeper Fabricio Agosto Ramírez's inexperience, both players were reinstated in the squad, although the Israeli regained his lost spot.

Munúa has been capped with the Uruguay national football team many times, participating in the FIFA World Cup 2002 in Korea and Japan and in the qualifying round for FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany.